Saints Schooling for Dogs

03/03/2025

Bookings for courses starting Friday, 7th March will close at 2pm this Wednesday. This will allow time to get information out so you can prepare for the first class 😊

COURSES FOR ALL PUPPIES AND YOUNG DOGS
Taking bookings/payment now for 4 week course (4 x 55 minute sessions, in person), dates are 7th, 21st and 28th March and 4th April. Email [email protected].

The Puppy Course – up to 18 weeks of age at the start of course - 6.30pm
The Older Puppy Course – over 18 weeks of age and up to 9 months - 7.30pm
Over 9 months of age - 8.30pm
Investment of £99.00 includes:
4 mid-week 30 minute zoom sessions (online meeting) for all - Tuesdays at 8pm - the initial one takes place on the 11th March.
Plus 1 x 30 minute 121 zoom session (online meeting) - at mutually agreeable time - available once the course has been booked, paperwork signed and paid for.
Dogs must be vaccinated and insured third party public liability.
Venue - Lonmay Public Hall, Lonmay, Fraserburgh, AB43 8UH
Puppy At Home packages are also available.

Please note, whilst all are welcome, if your puppy struggles around other dogs and/or people or is really anxious in new situations then 121 would need to be booked initially. Thank you for understanding this decision as the welfare of all dogs attending is always at the forefront of the decision making.
Periodically, complimentary 'Food for Thought' zoom sessions (20 to 30 minutes) are available for those who are yet undecided if 121 is for them. These are available to book between 6pm and 9pm Monday to Thursday.

03/03/2025

Saints Schooling For Dogs is run by dog behaviour and training specialist, Susan Sentinella.

Having provided consultancy services to a Scottish Dog Rescue Charity this, ultimately, led to me attending and being a long term member of Battersea Academy which is a centre for professional development that trains animal welfare practitioners from across the UK and around the world.

This keeps my overall skills up to date with continuous learning across a diverse range of subjects, crucial in today's working environments.

German Shepherds are my specialist breed having been blessed to live with these amazing dogs for 26 years and in my earlier years I lived with, learnt from and loved a variety of 'gifted' (rescue) dogs.

I use reward and choice based methods developed over decades of continual studying together with hands on experience. Passionate in sharing that in-depth knowledge and understanding of dogs and their needs, guiding them whilst working in collaboration with their families towards having their best life together.

Are you considering training?
Whether you already use reward and choice based methods, or are considering looking at how such methods work, feel free to either comment below or email [email protected]

Thank you 🐾👣🌻☀️

02/03/2025

PUPPY AND YOUNG DOG COURSES
BONUS ZOOM MEETINGS 🤔😉🙂
Do I have to attend the zoom sessions if doing one of the courses?
Absolutely not. These additional sessions are purely an extra bonus for you.
Will it mean I get left behind on the course and miss out if I don't attend online?
No. What I would say is you can do the course (in person) on its own and this will not be affected if you can attend all the in-person sessions.
However, attending the zoom sessions may enhance the course for you and the overall results. As you can imagine, there are so many variables that can present themselves with each unique team so there is a lot to consider.
Zoom sessions allow the opportunity to chat and catch up between classes, to refresh your memory if needed and the 121 session allows you time to be more specific if you are struggling in a particular area and we need to review and possibly make changes to what is taking place. If this session is taken early on in the course then you will have access to myself so we can work in collaboration and tweak anything if/as needed on your team's training journey to success 🙄🐾👣🎉

If anything is not clear please feel free to comment.

COURSES FOR ALL PUPPIES AND YOUNG DOGS
Taking bookings/payment now for 4 week course (4 x 55 minute sessions, in person), dates are 7th, 21st and 28th March and 4th April. Email [email protected].

The Puppy Course – up to 18 weeks of age at the start of course - 6.30pm
The Older Puppy Course – over 18 weeks of age and up to 9 months - 7.30pm
Over 9 months of age - 8.30pm
Investment of £99.00 includes:
4 mid-week 30 minute zoom sessions (online meeting) for all - Tuesdays at 8pm - the initial one takes place on the 11th March.
Plus 1 x 30 minute 121 zoom session (online meeting) - at mutually agreeable time - available once the course has been booked, paperwork signed and paid for.
Dogs must be vaccinated and insured third party public liability.
Venue - Lonmay Public Hall, Lonmay, Fraserburgh, AB43 8UH
Puppy At Home packages are also available.

Please note, whilst all are welcome, if your puppy struggles around other dogs and/or people or is really anxious in new situations then 121 would need to be booked initially. Thank you for understanding this decision as the welfare of all dogs attending is always at the forefront of the decision making.
Periodically, complimentary 'Food for Thought' zoom sessions (20 to 30 minutes) are available for those who are yet undecided if 121 is for them. These are available to book between 6pm and 9pm Monday to Thursday.

01/03/2025

A little something to have some fun with your dog that is from one of my old online courses 🐾🤩

Passive Indication (Scent Work)

I thought we'd look at something a little different again and come back to scent work.

A passive indication is when a dog freezes once they have found a scent, the type of behaviour you will see working dogs offering that are searching for d****, cash, wea**** or whatever scents they have been trained to.

We are just initially looking at teaching the indication as separating it from the search allows to train for precision. To do that we are going to use something like a washer or a coin, something that is really flat and that the puppy/dog can't pick up and also doesn't hold much scent.

Note: Safety comes first and if the item might be picked up by your dog then glue it down to a 'working area' or adapt the exercise for your own dog to keep them safe.

If you have been working on retrieve work, even an experienced dog and handler may find it difficult initially to switch to just indicating hence using an object that is more difficult to retrieve. As with previous exercises, always take care what other work you are working on so, if you have been doing retrieve work then don't train this on the same day and, with dogs that are just learning, be sure your retrieve items in no way resemble a coin or washer and are larger in order to minimise any confusion creeping in.

In the demo training video with Thomas I use a flat washer that is about 2.5cm diam.

We are looking, in this instance, to create a behaviour which is a freeze position as close as possible to the source of the scent.

We are aiming for the puppy/dog to hover/freeze over or target the coin/washer

We are not using a marker word.

We are rewarding at the source - being the washer/coin.

You can use toys but we will be using food this time.

Set your timer for two minutes. (Instead, in future you can work out how many treats you will use in the timescale, count them out and just work through your treats so that the alarm on your timer doesn't distract your puppy/dog albeit in time they should ignore distractions).

Have plenty of rewards on you so you don't run out - you need to deliver treats quickly - fast ROR.

Hotdogs ideal but something that doesn't leave crumbs on ground and distracts dog. You want them to get reward and go straight back to the washer/coin.

You can use your dog's meal for this - what a treat for them😊- much better than just sticking it in a bowl.

Whatever food you use, ideally you want them to be able to see/find it easily and quickly so think of the surface you are working on.

You need a sturdy surface to work on (not grass at this stage) - and don't do it on a slippery floor - the washer and puppy/dog will be sliding about.

As you put the coin/washer on the floor as soon as dog goes near it, reward - throw the reward as near as possible to the coin at first, so stand near dog/drop food virtually straight down at first on/near coin.

If dog doesn't notice it/go to it, tap the floor with your foot near it - as soon as any interest in coin, drop reward on it.

High ROR (rate of reinforcement)

See if you can build up the duration of the freeze to about 3 seconds

You can do this by gradually slowing down the ROR.

At the end of your session, get ready to throw a piece of food away from the coin/washer and use your finish cue as you quickly pick the coin up (don't leave it down).

A great little 'training session' if out shopping or anywhere and dog is with you - find a quiet parking place in a carpark/playground and do a 2 minute session.

Scentwork is really great for puppies and dogs, it is low impact and can, in time, promote focus on the job in hand and help them to gradually concentrate and work in environments that may be quite distracting or difficult in normal circumstances. Once they start to associate your set up and scent work kit coming out, instantly they know what is coming and have built up a really positive feeling about what is going to take place - you create a conditioned emotional response (CER).

Always make sure you have a bowl of water available for when training scentwork (as well as your other training sessions). At this stage you are only doing a taster session but, in time, if you start to expand on your session, your dogs will need to break off and likely want to drink.

Follow on video in comments below.

28/02/2025

COURSES FOR ALL PUPPIES AND YOUNG DOGS
Taking bookings/payment now for 4 week course (4 x 55 minute sessions, in person), dates are 7th, 21st and 28th March and 4th April. Email [email protected].

The Puppy Course – up to 18 weeks of age at the start of course - 6.30pm
The Older Puppy Course – over 18 weeks of age and up to 9 months - 7.30pm
Over 9 months of age - 8.30pm
Investment of £99.00 includes:
4 mid-week 30 minute zoom sessions (online meeting) for all - Tuesdays at 8pm - the initial one takes place on the 11th March.
Plus 1 x 30 minute 121 zoom session (online meeting) - at mutually agreeable time - available once the course has been booked, paperwork signed and paid for.
Dogs must be vaccinated and insured third party public liability.
Venue - Lonmay Public Hall, Lonmay, Fraserburgh, AB43 8UH
Puppy At Home packages are also available.

Please note, whilst all are welcome, if your puppy struggles around other dogs and/or people or is really anxious in new situations then 121 would need to be booked initially. Thank you for understanding this decision as the welfare of all dogs attending is always at the forefront of the decision making.
Periodically, complimentary 'Food for Thought' zoom sessions (20 to 30 minutes) are available for those who are yet undecided if 121 is for them. These are available to book between 6pm and 9pm Monday to Thursday.

18/01/2025

How do I train my own dogs and what knowledge and skills will you learn on your own journey training with me?
Mabel's Progress
An older video (in post below) of young Mabel - making a great choice, having run ahead of me, to then sit quietly whilst cows graze not far away.
After this clip I walked up to her, stepped into her side and rewarded her quietly whilst she remained in the sit.
She is incredibly high drive, quick to lose focus so rewarding anything that I love that she does increasingly encourages those great choices she makes, especially when in perhaps a more demanding situation.
I wouldn't have minded if she had been in a stand or a down and stayed motionless - her pausing and taking time to relax and be still is all I am sometimes looking for with her.
Using the long line allows me to create some distance from her and gradually push her training on so she can have more freedom but, I am ready to help support her and prevent her from making any big error such as too much focus on wildlife or livestock.
I often prefer, personally, to guide and reward what I like and to avoid perhaps telling her to specifically sit (for example). When at distance, if the dog is told to sit and they don't, you are inadvertently potentially reinforcing them not to sit by speaking to them if you keep repeating a word and they don't do what you require and, if off lead, you can't support them when needed and help them get things right. Yes, things still can go wrong but you are in a much better position to quickly step in and 'create' what you want from the dog.
My aim is to set up situations and the desire in my own individual dogs that they more automatically learn to offer me the very behaviours that I want. It is this collaboration and relationship building that I hope to instill in those I work with so they experience the same joy with their own dogs.
Any questions or views feel free to comment below.
An add on to the above, I do train and use a 'wait' too. The above is just a snippet of one minute element in my life with Mabel 🐾😍

18/01/2025

Taking bookings/payment now for 6 week courses (6 x 55 minute sessions), start dates 24th January and then 7th March. Email [email protected].

Can’t manage one week? Don’t worry, that’s covered with bonus of zoom sessions as well.
The Puppy Course – up to 18 weeks of age at the start of course - 6.30pm
The Older Puppy Course – over 18 weeks of age and up to 9 months - 7.30pm
Over 9 months of age - 8.30pm
Investment includes:
6 mid-week 30 minute zoom sessions for all - Tuesdays at 8pm - the initial one takes place before the first Friday night of training.
Plus 1 x 30 minute 121 zoom session - at mutually agreeable time - available once the course has been booked and paid for.
Investment - £150.00
Venue - Lonmay Public Hall, Lonmay, Fraserburgh, AB43 8UH
Puppy At Home packages are also available.

Please note, whilst all are welcome, if your puppy struggles around other dogs and/or people or is really anxious in new situations then 121 would need to be booked initially. Thank you for understanding this decision as the welfare of all dogs attending is always at the forefront of the decision making.
Periodically, complimentary 'Food for Thought' zoom sessions (20 to 30 minutes) are available for those who are yet undecided if 121 is for them. These are available to book between 6pm and 9pm any evening except Fridays and Sundays.